Hornets Hype

……But thanks!

With an attendance goal to meet, the Hornets’ MVP is turning out to be the fans.

Here we have a rare sighting of a positive Hornets attendance article in the wild. This elusive specimen was glimpsed on the front page (not the front page of Sports, the Front Page front page) of the Times Picayune, marking it as an article of a doubly rare species. It had to be photographed quickly before it disappeared, never to be seen again by scientists for many, many years.

Historic.

HypeMeter: Possibly at an all-time high.

Hornets win 110-98.

Deron Williams wasn’t a factor until later in the game, but then, what Jazz player was? The Hornets scored 38 points in the first quarter. They went on a 23-0 run. (“Wow, I don’t know how I feel about them busting out the GnR so early,” said Mike of the arena staff. “What if they need it later?” Prophetic words.)

Utah’s unnerving comeback in the 3rd and 4th had us on edge. The lead, which was as high as 27 points, shrank to ten and then to six. I was standing on my seat when Peja scored that three pointer. Until that moment, the Hornets were failing to convince me that this one was a 100% win. I found out the only problem when you’re already standing on your seat for the play of the game is, where do you go from there? I was practically climbing up the glass. It was glorious. Did anyone watch it on TV? Did it sound as loud? I loved Mo Pete on the side of the court waving his towel at the crowd to get louder.

That? That was home court advantage. You knew the Hornets were never going to look back.

Phil Jackson apparently said that it’s the mark of a good team when you hit 40 wins without having more than 20 losses. The Hornets are 39-18.

Let’s talk about Chris Paul. 24 points, 16 assists, and 5 steals. The last player, according to ESPN, to have a line like that was… oh wait, Chris Paul. Before that it was Kevin Johnson in 1993. The crazy thing is CP had a quieter last half of the game. He ran up most of those numbers in the first quarter alone. We’re tossing around the idea of switching out our “BACK ROW BELIEVES” sign for some kind of Chris Paul Steal Counter, because it’s his potentially record-breaking stat. With numbers that you flip to count his steals in each game. The thing is, we’d have to count them ourselves, because they never put that number up on the board. Last night was encouraging: I also had CP3 at five steals. We can count! Oh, and we went to Gordon Biersch after the game to see the postgame radio show, and Joe Block went crazy over Mike’s MVP shirt.

CrowdWatch: 17,445 and another sellout. That’s three out of the last four games. The legend grows.

T.P. Watchdog: Fine, I guess you can talk about the Saints’ signings. But if you ever even touch baseball, you are barred from my porch. We just attempted to sit through ESPN’s replay of the highlights from last night, and it was excruciating. No one cares about preseason baseball. There are like 200 freakin’ games already. NO ONE CARES ABOUT PRESEASON BASEBALL. I believe this is a fact. I know no one who cares about it. I have never heard of anyone who cares about it. I’m not convinced it even exists… OK, now see, you got me off topic. I’m liking the presence of at least two Hornets articles per day recently. But I do think last night’s game deserved a top blurb on the front page. T.P. Watchdog… keeping the media responsible & buzz-friendly since 2007.

Free! CP3 Posters for everyone tonight! (See left.) Clearly meant to be a depiction of what Chris Paul looks like shortly before devouring someone’s soul. And they’ve done a good job with it, too.

ESPN the Mag Hype for CP: This article just appeared on the front page of espn.com. Everyone wants to be friends with Chris Paul. It’s the cool thing to do. Except, where ya been lately on that whole yelling-at-Tyson thing?

What-EVER, Marty Burns: People who disrespect the CP3|MVP mission end up in a special place. It’s called the Shit List.

CrowdWatch: I think we’ve got another sellout for tonight. There were only 300 tickets left as of this morning.

Bonus Random Hype That Can’t Quite Be Categorized: Hilton Armstrong and Julian Wright go bowling. Why? How? No one knows. I love you, internets.

And remember to smile at the game, because you’re on TV!

I myself have whoooo-ed in this same tunnel.

Sellout of 17,931. The hype is blaaaaazzzzzing. The arena was rocking. The sun went down Wednesday night.

Seriously, though. If that Tyson dunk is not the #1 on every highlight show, I will… well, never mind what I will do. He was like, “Hey, Dwight. WHAT-EV. I don’t need a cape to fly.”

Hornets 120, Suns 103. Hornets sweep the season series with the Suns. I debut a new homemade T-shirt. (But. I go back to the TC6 jersey on Friday just AS A TRIBUTE to the much-improved play this evening. Fierce. Does he read the blogs and forums?) We witness the return of the dominant third quarter. There is free beer.

And, everybody together now: What’s the only beer better than a dollar beer?

FREE BEER!

T.P. Watchdog: Hornets have a box stickied at the top of nola.com currently, where the main story usually is. I have never seen that.

• Attendance was 11,289.
• The Hornets lost to the Wizards.
• The Hornets are on a three game losing streak.

There is no hype. There is negative hype.

I’d skip right on over to here for Hornets.com coverage of the All Star Weekend, which is right now featuring All Star Diaries from David West and Peja Stojakovic (man, despite this blog’s families having originated in Croatia and Poland, that one still gives me pause… and believe me when I say, we’ve got enough Eastern European extraneous letters around this here apartment to float alphabet soup).

I thought this article was going to be the same old crap, but it ends on an up note and for that I respect them.

T.P. Watchdog Effort: Seriously respectable sports section today. CP3’s picture was in it no less than four times. I think only three pages didn’t have Hornets content. Of course, much of it was All Star content, but they did a good job with the Hornets-oriented All Star articles. T.P. Watchdog… keeping the media responsible & buzz-friendly since 2007.

Went to Hornets night at the Jam Session on Wednesday. If I had kids or was the kind of person who doesn’t mind waiting in lines to participate in contests and activities (I’m not), it would have been more fun. But the store rocked. Picked up two T-shirts, the mug (with the crawfish All Star logo!), and the bead (indecent to live in New Orleans and pay for a bead, let alone $8 for a bead, but come on… All Star bead!) I was disappointed you couldn’t buy a West West jersey in small sizes. In fact, they should have had an altogether better selection of stuff for the Hornets all stars. That’s what the people were there for. Give the people what they want!

All Star coverage on ESPN right now is mildly hilarious. CP3 calling Deion Sanders old, a chef from Galatoire’s cooking stuff up on the spot, and Amare Stoudamire is currently getting his tarot cards read. You should turn it on.

This blog has tickets to the Rookie Game, the Skills Competition, and the All Star Game on Sunday night. So watch for updates on famous people sightings! (But don’t get your hopes up. I am notoriously bad at spotting famous people. I once poured water for Peyton Manning without looking up under the baseball cap, no joke.)

This was one of the better early crowds I’ve seen this season. I attribute this to the Pre-Game Buzzfest outside the arena, which was helped out by the solidly temperate weather. If you haven’t been to a Buzzfest, you should. Dollar beers! The next one is scheduled for Friday, February 22nd, and the party starts rolling at 5:30.

Alternatively, you could buy season tickets for next year. Because that nets you free beers. And we all know the only beer better than a dollar beer is a free beer.

We hung our “THE BACK ROW BELIEVES” banner in its usual spot, but felt weird about it when we realized our fellow season ticket holder neighbors had been replaced tonight by a row of strangers. Well, guys, we believe, and since you’re sitting here, you’re gonna have to by default.

Chris Paul and David West did the intro for the game. Hilarious. CP thanked the fans for their support and said what an honor it is to be in the All Star Game (slightly disingenuous since they weren’t voted in, but I bet half the people in the crowd didn’t know the difference). Then he goes, “I’m sure D West wants to say something to y’all,” and holds out the mike, cracking up because he knows full well D West is freaked out by the idea of saying something to the crowd and is going nowhere near that mike. He shakes his head and throws a salute instead. Classic.

Hello, makeover! The arena is now sporting snazzy signs over every vendor. Signs with cute New Orleans-y names. Clearly this is being added to spice up the arena for the upcoming All Star Game. I hope we get to keep the upgrades when the NBA leaves. The concourse also now sports a couple of much nicer-looking bars.

The Hornets looked a bit lax after pulling out to an early 14-point lead. Playing without Tyson Chandler and Morris Peterson, they still never looked like they weren’t in control of the game. Final score Hornets 112, Grizzlies 99.

HypeMeter: As we speak, the headline on CNN/SI is “All That Buzz,” with a giant photo of Angry David West (might actually be slightly scarier than Angry Chris Paul, due to the size factor).

T.P. Watchdog: Times Picayune Sunday print edition has the better part of 5 pages devoted to the Hornets/All Star Game. Right on. Good job, friends. (See, I can bestow praise where praise is due.)

And one final note.

This was the first sellout of 2008. I like to think of it as the first sellout of the new era. I see a distinct, marked difference starting with the last three crowds. This dates back to the Spurs win, which I believe was the start of something special. If you were there at the Denver game the Monday after… you know you thought, “Wow.” I hope in the future we will be able to point to that game and say, “That’s when it started. And we never looked back.” I hope the hype is rolling, rolling like the Hornets are rolling and can’t be stopped. I hope the word spreads, that there is something happening with this team and this season that you don’t want to miss.

I hope.

And what keeps me hoping is this: Last night we saw New Orleans Arena sell out. And it wasn’t Kobe, it wasn’t LeBron. The Memphis Grizzlies? Please. The Grizzlies got nothing.

17, 231 people came last night to see the Hornets.

San Jose Mercury News: Even Warriors’ Davis fails to draw fans in New Orleans

Blaaaahhhh, blah, blah… I’m sorry, was that guy talking?

My mistake. It must have been the wind rustling through the Uptown trees…